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Editorial: Sunshine week shines light on transparency and open government

Posted: March 13, 2013 - 12:21am

Savannah

We’re in the middle of Sunshine Week and this is when newspapers get to lobby for open government and more transparency.

Even though newspapers typically use this week to focus more on public information, the Freedom of Information Act is for everyone to understand and use all during the year.

Taxpayers and members of the public should be able to walk into Town Hall and get public documents and other requested information in a reasonable amount of time and at a reasonable cost. "Reasonable" is often defined differently by elected officials, members of government, law enforcement and others who want to keep a tighter handle on what information is released to the public or the media.

School boards, town councils and a host of other entities should not vote to go into an executive session unless it is warranted and legal. Most executive sessions are for personnel, pending litigation or confidential negotiations.

Going behind closed doors for anything else is not legal and should be challenged. There is not really a lot of gray area in our opinion. Some discussion of personnel issues can be done in executive session, but the voting should be done in public.

Officials should not redact documents or refuse to release documents that are considered public. And they should not charge an exorbitant fee to residents or members of the media for what they are entitled to in order try to discourage people from asking for them in the first place.

It is unfortunate that the FOI reform bill stalled in the House of Representatives last week as the body adjourned debate on the measure, meaning it will not come up again until March 20 because of budget discussions this week. That is disappointing and sends a message to some of us in the news business that our lawmakers do not consider it very important.

We know a couple of our local lawmakers — Rep. Bill Herbkersman and Weston Newton, both of Bluffton — take the reforms seriously and are fans of open government and transparency and we applaud them and their efforts.

There was talk that several amendments were planned, but none were filed before the vote to delay.

“This is a disappointing delay, but we still have time to get it passed,” said Bill Rogers, SCPA Executive Director.

The FOI reform bill working its way through the state legislative process is a good bill that would give citizens faster and more affordable access to public information.

Spearheaded by Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, the bill would prevent agencies from charging fees that exceed actual copying costs or exceed the local prevailing rate. The fee schedules would have to be posted online and charges for document searches could not exceed the prorated hourly salary of the lowest paid employee with skills and training to perform the request.

Many public bodies across the state operate from the knowledge that they are doing the people’s business with the people’s money.

In addition to making fees in South Carolina more predictable and reasonable, other proposed changes in Taylor’s reform bill would require agencies to respond to open-records requests within 10 working days rather than the current 15 business days. And a document must be turned over to the requester within 30 days of the request with more time allowed for records more than two years old.

The current law sets no time requirement for delivery of documents which has often led to months of delays. The only recourse at present would be legal action to seek release of the documents.

One innovative change in the bill would give the Administrative Law Court the ability to hear FOI appeals rather than sending citizens and journalists through expensive legal processes that can take years and thousands of dollars to resolve.

The bill as proposed won’t create the degree of openness and transparency we need. Amendments related to an exemption provision for legislators have created a broader and important debate. But possible refinements should not stop the bill’s forward motion.

We call on the Legislature to move Taylor’s bill into law and open the way for needed progress.

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